Avoid Unnecessary Downtime With Predictive Maintenance

The average manufacturer wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars on production downtime each year. If you’re looking for ways to increase your facility’s competitive advantage, cutting your maintenance costs and downtime should be part of your overall strategy. Predictive maintenance and pay-per-use machinery may be part of the solution.

Equipment Failure and Downtime Are Major Challenges for Manufacturers

Everyone in a manufacturing facility is impacted when equipment fails or malfunctions. Line workers lose productivity and valuable compensation. Plant managers have to explain why their cost-per-unit is lower than anticipated. And customers may not get their products on time.

According to a recent report by VansonBourne and ServiceMax, the average company lost $2 million due to unscheduled downtime over the past three years. In certain industries, downtime is exponentially more expensive than others. In a 2006 survey by ATS and Nielsen Research, 101 automotive manufacturers reported that downtime cost them an average of $22,000 per minute.

It’s no surprise that many leading-edge companies are embracing predictive maintenance — especially in the auto industry. Regardless of your field, you can gain a competitive advantage by incorporating smart factory solutions in your production facilities. According to a 2016 survey, more than half of the executives polled thought the age and capabilities of their company’s production equipment were the same or worse than their competitors.

If you can identify issues before they arise and minimize your maintenance costs, you may be able to improve your labor productivity, decrease your operational costs, and improve your overall bottom line.

Regain Control With Industrial IoT and Predictive Maintenance

Your factory floor is probably filled with decades-old equipment. While some of your machines are in top-notch working order, it’s likely that you have a few that are showing their age. You may struggle to find parts for these older machines, but you may also think that they’re cheaper to repair than replace. Your maintenance teams might even think they know which parts need replacing and have cobbled together a proposed maintenance schedule. But do you have facts to support all these hunches?

You don’t need to fumble along making educated guesses and hoping for the best. With help from Stratus Innovations Group, you can continually monitor your equipment’s function and health — even if the machines operate on different platforms and systems.

A predictive maintenance system uses data to identify issues before a catastrophic breakdown occurs. For example, vibration and heat sensors may notice a malfunction or worn part before it negatively impacts your production rates. Rather than waiting for a crisis, you can schedule a time to repair the failing part or machine on your own terms.

When failures do happen, your intelligent factory system may warn you of the issue — even if your facility is unstaffed at the time of the failure. Because smart factory systems connect to the cloud, they can notify key stakeholders of an issue remotely and without prompting. Again, early warnings can help you avoid waste and downtime.

Finally, you can also use predictive maintenance data to identify when maintenance isn’t necessary or can be delayed, reducing your expenses even more.

Replace Your Aging Machines With Pay-Per-Use Equipment

If it’s time to replace outdated equipment, you should explore the exciting new world of pay-per-use machinery. While you may already have a pay-per-use photocopier in your office, the idea of “equipment as a service” or pay-per-use production equipment is much newer.

Companies in diverse industries, ranging from medical imaging to aeronautics, are offering their customers cutting-edge pay-per-use solutions. Instead of purchasing new production equipment, you can lease the machinery and pay on a per-use basis. Typically, the equipment vendor is responsible for the machine’s maintenance and will likely use preventive maintenance technology to reduce its costs.

Stratus Innovations Group’s Intelligent Factory Solution Offering is a powerful tool that can give you deeper insight into your equipment’s health and maintenance needs. More importantly, it can communicate with machinery across a wide variety of platforms and protocols to increase safety and efficiency while mitigating downtime.

If you’re ready to learn more about preventive maintenance, pay-per-use equipment, and smart factory technology, please contact us today by calling 844-561-6721 or completing this brief online form.